“I’m pitching the Okada project today. In a freakin’ hour.”
“Amery, that’s great!”
“No, it’s not because I’m not pitching it to Maggie. The VP of Okada is here and I’m meeting with her.”
“The VP of the North American division?”
“No, the big VP. She answers directly to the president of the entire company.”
“Oh, man. What can I do?”
“Pat yourself on the back that we finished by the skin of our teeth last night.” She pointed to the studio, where they’d spread the design paperwork on the floor. “Get everything together. Check it. Double-check it. Triple-check it. Then put it in my portfolio and type me up a list of what’s included. I have to change into a power suit and get my game face on.” She scaled the stairs to her loft two at a time.
Amery tore through her closet. Where the hell were all of her dress clothes?
Dirty. She’d been so tied up in the Okada project and pounding the pavement for new clients that she hadn’t done laundry in two weeks.
Tied up. There was a play on words.
Her gaze landed on the coil of black rope on the floor. Strange, Ronin never left his ropes behind. But last night had been . . . intense. Even more intense than usual. Maybe he’d been as scrambled as she’d been this morning. She looked around and smiled. But he had remembered to take his gift.
Ronin had shown up late last night. After wrapping up the Okada project, she was wired. Like really wired. As soon as he’d ditched his overnight bag, she was on him. Kissing him crazily. Slipping her hands beneath his tank top and running her fingers all over his muscled torso. Biting and sucking on his neck with complete abandon.
“I take it you’re happy to see me,” he said, pushing her face back into his neck when she stopped sucking on his favorite spot. “More and harder.”
“I don’t want to leave a mark.”
“With you this restless tonight? Baby, I don’t care. I’ll wear your mark as a gift.”
She sucked on him until he hissed and she eased back. “Speaking of . . . I have a gift for you,” she whispered in his ear.
“For me? What’s the occasion?”
“Just because. Hang tight and I’ll get it.”
She’d made it halfway across the living room when she heard him say, “Strip for me.”
Amery turned and looked at him. “Don’t you want your present?”
“Yes. But you’ll give it to me when you’re naked.”
She whipped off her clothes. “Happy now?”
“Yes. Seeing your bare ass jiggle is a gift in itself.” He grinned at her. “But yeah, go ahead.”
She’d hidden the wrapped package in the linen closet. The brown paper wrapper wasn’t fancy, but she’d gone online and watched a video on how to tie decorative knots. So the twine was similar to the plain jute rope he used on her sometimes.
For some reason she had a bout of shyness when she returned with the package. But Ronin’s uncharacteristic “Gimme” made her laugh.
He studied the knot, as she’d hoped he would. When he looked up at her, pure pleasure shone in his eyes. “Someone has been studying up on knot-tying techniques.”
She shrugged and smiled.
He didn’t untie the knot; he said, “I’m keeping this as part of the gift,” and slipped the twine off. He tore the paper away and went motionless as the pieces fell to the floor.
“Do you like it? I know it’s probably bigger than what you were expecting, but I figured that no one else is going to see it but you.” She’d enlarged the picture he’d declared as his from the bondage cover photo shoot and framed it in an Asian-inspired red-and-black lacquered frame. It’d taken her a few weeks to find the courage to take it to a printing shop. Even then she’d chosen a place on the outskirts of Denver, given the clerk a fake name, and paid in cash—not that she’d ever confess that to Ronin.
The longer he stared at the explicit image without speaking, the bigger her fear became that he hadn’t really wanted a picture of her bound. “If you don’t want it . . .”
Those golden eyes met hers. Must’ve been a trick of the light, because for a split second she swore she saw a shimmer of tears.
Then he said something in Japanese.
“What does that mean?”
“It has no literal translation, which is an indication that I’ve got no words to give you for what this means to me, Amery.” Then he bowed to her deeply.
Which was weird even when part of her realized he’d just paid her a high compliment.
Ronin carefully wrapped the twine around the corner of the frame and carried it into her bedroom.
After a minute or so when he hadn’t returned, she followed him.
He stood beside the bed, bare-chested, wearing white gi pants. Even if she hadn’t seen the black rope in his hand, she recognized he’d slipped into rope master demeanor when he’d slipped on his uniform.
“Beauty given from the heart should be rewarded.”
Her entire body quivered.
“Come here.”
She took two steps, stopping next to the bed.
“Stand still.”
His body brushed against hers.
Amery trembled harder.
His hair tickled her cheek and her neck as he kissed her temple and nuzzled her jawline to the tip of her chin. Warm, soft lips followed the cords straining in her neck, down the hollow of her throat, over her breastbone, and between her breasts.
“Sit on the bed.”
She perched on the edge, knees open, never taking her eyes off the man before her. Ronin’s wicked mouth landed on her sternum and zigzagged down her belly, pausing to lightly skim the sensitive area between her hip bones. After gracefully dropping into a squat, he pressed kisses over her bare mound, softly suckling her clit. Then he dragged his tongue down the seam of her sex and plunged deep into her cunt. He made the growling noise that sent additional shivers through her.
Her skin beaded, electrified by every touch of his lips, or his fingers, and even the soft lash of his hair.
His hands were on the inside of her thighs pushing her wider open yet and pulling her forward until her lower back pressed against the edge of the mattress. Ronin’s liquid gold eyes were on hers. “Every part of you is sacred to me. Every. Part.” He swirled his tongue around her anus.
Amery gasped even as she blushed. She never imagined that something so . . . dirty and forbidden could feel so good.
“I will have you here. Every part of you is mine to worship.” He lapped at the rosebud several more times and pushed his thumb against the tight pink muscle. His teeth grazed the fleshy outer edge of her pussy and he soothed the sting with soft kisses.
After more long drugging kisses from her clit to her anus, he set her feet back on the floor.
“Stand up, spread your legs wide, and grab your ankles.” He toyed with the black rope as she got into position.
Then he very calmly started binding her right wrist to her right ankle.
With her hair hanging down, obscuring much of her vision, she couldn’t tell if it was an artistic wrap or merely a functional one. She basked in Ronin’s sexual energy. By the time he finished his handiwork, she was dripping wet.
He took another length of rope and let it dangle through his fingers as he caressed her chest, preparing her for the next section of her body he intended to bind. When he finished the chest harness, she’d transitioned into shallow breaths, the white bliss of subspace teasing the edge of her awareness.
Every time he bound her, he checked every strand of rope to ensure that it was properly placed and any pinching sensation was intentional.
Ronin cupped her face in his hands, pushing her hair back to peer into her eyes, and straight into her soul. “Gorgeous. I would like a picture of you like this, black rope against your pearly skin. Showing your eyes as you struggle to understand why your being bound for me appeals to you.”